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Day 0: It is Finished.

Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. What an effing day! I am beyond words with how many bursts of emotion I’m feeling right now. I can’t even being to explain how truly humbled, elated, blessed, happy, ecstatic, pumped, relieved, hopefully, excited, awestruck, and moved I am. The influx of support and words of encouragement that have gotten me through today have been an incredible boost of energy and positivity that made the day go by so wonderfully, without any major hitches!

The day started off early with me greeting the sunrise (and 5:30AM vitals). I showered, got dressed, had a full breakfast — see below — and was ready for the transplant to begin at any point in the morning.

Turned out the bone marrow center wasn’t open until 9AM and then there was a hang up with the pharmacy to get a mannitol order through (I needed some mannitol an hour before the transplant to help facilitate the transplant since I’m AB+ and my donor is B+… something about using a forced alkaline hydration/mannitol diuresis regiment to reduce fatal hemolytic transfusion reaction see here). Basically it helps reduce the possibility of cross reactivity of blood types since my donor is a different one, even though I’m the universal acceptor type (I think by helping coat cells with the sugar mannitol to reduce cross-reaction? Don’t quote me on that one. I need to do more research). We wouldn’t want the donor marrow to freak out and start hemolysing.

So then, I ordered lunch, had my nurses bring in the station bike and biked for 20 minutes, finished a movie called “Chef,” and made the most of the time I had to wait.

Finally, around 1PM the mannitol arrived and we got the show started. During that time my friends Matt Ogawa and Matt Cook stopped by and ended up being here for most of the transplant. We chatted, played UNO (compliments of Susie Wheeler), enjoyed mini powdered donuts Matt Cook had brought (OMG SO GOOD), and had a gay ole’ time!

Needless to say, even with my chemo brain, I still managed to win a game or two. It was so much fun! And the time passed pretty quickly.

When the marrow finally arrived it was seriously too good to be true. All of these months building up to these moments, all the anticipation finally getting to see its release! (Get your mind out of the gutter…).

I had the pleasure of working with two lovely ladies — Yvonne and Kathryn. Both very talented, kind, wonderful human beings skilled with the ability to work quickly, concisely, and seamlessly together. They were just as pumped about this as I was! Nerves were fluttering all around the room! Especially in my hands!

The transplant itself, once under way, was a very passive procedure. The marrow and a saline bag are connected to a filter tube which drips downward due to gravity into tubes that connect to my Hickman catheter. No use of pumps, pomp, or circumstance. Just good old fashioned gravity. Once one bag was finished, we flushed the remaining bits with saline, and loaded up the next bag until all four bags of bone marrow were transfused into my body. FOUR BAGS. That came out to a total of 1.67L of bone marrow. Think of a two liter soda bottle that an annoying roommate took a drunken swig out of and stuck back in the fridge. That much marrow. It’s crazy to think that I have that now. In my body. Floating around. All of those little cells finding their new niches and homes in their rightful places, to rest happily while they proliferate and help restore my body to its rightful “normal” functioning capacity. And to think my donor donated that much! I hope he’s a big guy cos dayummmm!

I was telling Matt and Matt that even after the first bag had started transfusing, I started to feel more energized, my brain felt more engaged, and I felt more active! Granted it was probably due more to the adrenaline, but still. This stuff is legit! Even now as I type, I find I’m making less mistakes and my creative brain is spinning wildly. I’m ecstatic with happiness! 🙂

To add the icing to cake, my a cappella group from college the Dear Abbeys recorded and sent me a little beautiful ditty from the ICCA competition! I’m so, so proud of these guys and so damn grateful for their beautiful voices, talent, and care of the old folks!

Thanks guys! You really know how to make an old man find his groove again!

To add the literally icing to the cake, the nurses at 11 Long ordered me a little Happy Re-Birthday cupcake and sang me to me as I blew out my unlit (fire hazard no!) candle. They are such a wonderful group of people. I can’t rant and rave *enough* about them! All of the staff from admin, to pharmacy, to the nurses, to NPs, to interns, and attendings. Everyone I’ve met has been amazing and responsive, kind and genuine. I feel so incredibly blessed!

The day ended five hours later with more vitals and a very happy, excited farewell to both Matts and my nurses, and now the night shift takes over. The last things left are another mannitol transfusion, more vitals at night, and then the schedule resets at midnight this time with a slightly altered chemo schedule. More on that later.

With calls, texts, Facetimes, messages, and emails throughout today, I truly felt all of the love you guys were sending. All of that positive energy, your prayers, your thoughts did not fall on vain ears. I believe every single one of you helped me succeed through today and I’m incredibly thankful for you.

Thank you for your strength when I thought I couldn’t keep going. Though I don’t talk about it at all on this blog, there were numerous times this past week and in the past few months when I just wanted to give up, throw in the towel, and forget it. But it’s with all of your constant love and support I was able to make it through today, and again I will make it through tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and for many more days to come. So, thank you. Thank you from the deepest, depths of my heart.

So what’s next? The upcoming weeks will probably be the most trying of them all. My blood counts will continue to crash as my body adjusts to this new immune system, but with my amazing support team monitoring me 24/7, I should be well taken care of. It will take about 5-6 days for the new marrow to engraft properly, and then 15-20 days for the marrow to flourish and start picking up my blood count numbers. But I’m not afraid. I’m ready for this. It’ll be a slow, steady process, and I’m ready to fight tooth and nail each step of the way. Cos I’m a fighter, not a quitter.

7 thoughts on “Day 0: It is Finished.”

My friend, you are a real portrait in courage, and you are a lesson to all of us. Every letter you write teaches me not to sweat the small stuff. Team Min is always out here and cheering for you. Stay strong…and thank you!!! Mrs. D.

I wish you a Happy Re-Birthday, too! I am really happy for you that you have reached this point. Your positive energy is totally inspiring. All the best to you, Min, after what you’ve done so far, let’s hope the rest will be… a piece of Re-Birthday cake! Have a good night.